USA > California > San Joaquin County > An illustrated history of San Joaquin County, California. Containing a history of San Joaquin County from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its future prospects; > Part 70
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fession. Dean Jewett Locke was the second son (see his sketch elsewhere, nnder the name of Mrs. Delia M. Locke). Elmer Hall Locke, the third son, will be hereafter mentioned at somne length. The fourth son, George S., is the subject of this sketch. Luther Locke, father of the above, died at Lockeford, July 12, 1866. George S. Locke, when ten years old, worked out in haying at $2 a month, and followed farm- ing most of the time nntil twenty-one years of age. In the summer and fall of 1846 he went to a school kept by his brother, D. J., at Paw- tucket, Massachusetts, for five or six months, working for his board. He also worked at dent- istry with his brother at Nashua. He next went one term to Reed's Ferry, to a normal school started by Russell, of school-reader fame. There he got a teacher's certificate, and tanght one term of school. He then went back to the farm with his mother, and took charge of the work there until he had reached the age of twenty-one years. Having determined to go to California, he left Langdon for New York, and on the 6th day of December, 1851, sailed from that port on the steamer Cherokee at 2:30 P. M. He landed at Chagres on the 18th of Decem- ber, went up the river to Crucez, where he ar- rived on the 20th, and from there walked to Panama on the 21st. He becanie sick with Panama fever, and was confined there for some days. On the 27th he bought a ticket for San Francisco by the steamer Golden Gate, the second trip she made on this side. The vessel touched at Acapulco, and he spent tke 2d of January, 1852, ashore there. On the 10th of January he landed at San Francisco, and at once took a boat for Stockton, where he arrived on the 11th, his ticket having cost him $10. Being sick and unable to get word of his arrival to his brothers, he went to the hospital and remained there for two weeks, when his brother, having learned of his arrival, came to the hospital and took him out to his home on the ranch wliere Lockeford now is situated. He was so ill as to be unable to perform any labor until about the 1st of April, then went to work for his brothers.
He did the cooking, while D. J. hauled garden products to the mines. Eggs brought $3 a dozen, tomatoes 12 to 16 cents a pound, and other things in proportion. Two years later he commenced for himself, and made money team- ing, selling salmon, etc. He located about 135 acres of land, a part of his present home ranch, and embarked more extensively in farming. After the death of his brother Elmer, who had built a part of the present residence in 1855, our subject removed into it. He has added considerably to his landed possessions, and his land about Lockeford is known for its splendid soil. Besides grain farming, he has devoted considerable attention to stock, and has been very successful in both lines. He paid taxes this last year in five different connties.
Mr. Locke was married May 15, 1859, to Miss Susan L. Hammond, who was born in North Abington, Massachusetts, January 13, 1839. She is an accomplished lady, and taught school in this connty for two years. Ten chil- dren have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Locke, viz .: Sarah A. J., born Angust 5, 1860; Elmer H., born October 22, 1862, died May 20, 1875; George F., born August 22, 1864, died Novem- ber 14, 1868; Wallace H., born May 8, 1867; Amy, born February 4, 1869, died February, 1869; Lilla, born May 26, 1871; John G., born September 20, 1873; Mertice, born Jnne 4, 1876; Franklin H., born Angust 5, 1878, and Alma G., born January 15, 1882, died Decem- ber 2, 1882.
Mr. Locke's life has been one full of lessons on the value of industry. When he was a mere boy of fonrteen or fifteen he learned the value of putting his little savings out at interest, and when he came to California he had saved up $100 of his own, which with $100 he borrowed from his father was what he had to get to Cali- fornia and inake his start with. He has never engaged in more than one really unsuccessful speculation, and that was in 1862, when he and his brother D. J., Mr. Foster and others bought the steamer Pert in San Francisco and brought it up to Lockeford, loaded with freight for the
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mines, where it landed at the ferry on his ranch, April 5, 1862. The Mokelnmne River Naviga- tion Company was formed with Mr. Locke as treasurer. The boat was run successfully during this spring, but Jerry Woods, of Woodbridge, had a bill passed by the Legislature granting him the right to build a bridge without a draw, across the river at that place, which headed off all navigation any farther than that point. Gov- ernor Leland Stanford signed the bill. This steamboat venture cost Mr. Locke about $3,000 in losses. He became a stockholder in the Lodi quill, loaned the company $10,000, and bought the property in when it was sold at sheriff's sale, and ran the mill about a year. He has been a stockholder in the First National Bank of Stockton since its organization, is a member of the Congregational church, and furnislied the largest portion of the money to build the church.
ELMER H. LOCKE, deceased, was born in Langdon, New Hampshire, December 24, 1825. He was well educated, being a graduate of Bridgewater Normal School, and taught two terms of school at Cape Cod, Massachusetts. He then attended the Rensselaer Institution, Troy, New York, and was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Natural Sciences, Sep- tember 29, 1848. The California fever seized him with sufficient force to determine his join- ing the throng of emigration pouring in that direction in 1849. Having made his prepara- tions to go, he attended Father Taylor's church in Boston on the night of February 25, intend- ing to start the next day. Delays occurred, and it was the 1st of March when the ship Sweden, on which he was a passenger, sailed out of Bos- ton harbor. An immense crowd was at the dock to see them off, and Father Taylor made a farewell speech. On the 3d of August, 1849, the vessel arrived in San Francisco harbor. In his diary, Elmer H. Locke speaks of it in these terms: "We came to the entrance of the har- bor at 2 o'clock. No pen can describe our feel- ings at the time, and what followed for the remainder of the day. Received a letter from
mother. Left San Francisco for Stockton Au- gust 20. Stopped in Stockton till the 28th. Went to Brooklyn City, on the Mokelumne. Commenced a garden on the 2d of September." On the 18th of September lie writes that he has dug $20 in gold, but has been sick most of the time with dysentery. His garden was right at the foot of Butte Mountain, below Mokel- umne Hill, on the north side of the river. On the 15th of October he makes entry in his diary as follows: "Recovered from dysentery, and while yet weak started on a prospecting tour for the Forks about the 1st of October. Went up North Fork, crossed over and came down South Fork. Was gone four days. Felt in ex- cellent health. Started next day for the Cala- veras, to trade with the Indians. Got three miles, and on the 6th of October got accident- ally shot in attempting to draw a rifle pistol to shoot a raven which was flying close over my head. Ball entered the right side, passed through the body, and was taken out at the left thigli, a distance of twenty two inches." Dr. D. J. Locke, who had come across the plains as physi- cian for the Boston and Newton company of emigrants, heard of the accident to his brother, and proceeded to Mokelminne Hill, being two nights and one day on the road from Sacra- mento. He himself was taken sick, and he then sent to Sacramento and got a friend named Loring (who also came out in the Boston and Newton company) to come to Mokelunine Hill to nurse him and Elmer. Loring also became sick, and Elmer, who was very weak, waited on his two companions in misfortune, with his own knees hield up by a bar run across between two forked sticks. Loring died there, but the Locke brotliers recovered and went to Sacramento. There the Locke brothers and Mr. B. Burt built a house, of poles and oak shakes made by themselves, on L street, between Ninth and Tenth, and in the following spring they went to Mississippi Bar, where they ran a store. Elmer came down to San Joaquin County in 1851, and settled a little northwest of Lockeford, where George S. Locke now lives. He and his brother
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D. J. fenced in about 300 acres of land on the Mokelumne river bottom, and in the summer of 1851, D. J. was up in the mines at Downieville, where he made considerable money, while Elmer remained on the ranch and cut about 200 tons of hay that season. In the spring of 1852 they planted a vegetable garden between two sloughs on the ranch, on the lower side of the present road. When George S. got well he did the cooking, as stated in his sketch, while D. J. sold the vegetables in the mining camps, and Elmer went up to Sacramento, where he was engaged in the poultry business the summer of 1852. He went to Tulare County, prospecting, and lo- cated a ranch in the Four Creek country. Even at that early day, he planned to run water over his land there to make it more productive- He eventually left there, came back to the present location in San Joaquin County, and built part of the house in which George S. now resides. Here he died on the 28th of June, 1858. He was a straightforward, enegetic man, and was well respected by those who knew him. The Locke family are closely identified with the early settlement of that portion of San Joaquin County, and indeed have been prominent in its history since the pioneer days.
ATSON C. GREEN was born July 15, 1851, in Independence County, Ar kansas. On account of the civil war, his parents decided to move to California, and young Green, then nine years old, was given a goad stick which he used as a persuader for the oxen on the long and toilsome journey across the plains. The family came direct to San Joa- quin County, and settled on land on the Mokel- umne river, a few miles east of Lodi. For a number of years he worked on his father's farm, going to the district school near by whenever he could be spared from the field. He early expressed an eagerness for an education, but soon found that whatever of advantages in that line he was to have must be obtained solely
through his own exertions. He worked hard, saved liis money and took a four-year course in the University of the Pacific at San Jose at a cost of over $2,000, every dollar of which he earned by manual labor. At the conclusion of his collegiate course, he passed a teacher's examina- tion and accepted a school in Calaveras County, which he taught three years. He then turned his attention to the study of law, which he pros- ecnted with vigor in the law office of J. B. Hall, of Stockton. In January, 1883, he was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of this State, and immediately afterward commenced the practice of this profession at Lodi, where to- day he has a good and constantly increasing business, and enjoys the confidence of all who know him. He is a man of remarkable energy and push, and is always among the leaders of of any new enterprise that is calculated to pro- mote the best interests of the community in which he lives and of the county in general.
CTAVIUS HAYMAN HULL, of the Hull & Stewart Company of this city, dealers in school supplies, sewing-na- chines, pianos and organs, was born July 16, 1845, in Taylor County, West Virginia, a son of Jacob and Sarah (Thomas) Hull, both natives of that section of the " Old Dominion," and now deceased. His father, a farmer and tanner near Knottsville, died at the age of sixty-three, and his mother at fifty-seven. Grandfather Jacob Hull, by birth a German, came to America with his parents before the Revolution, and afterward became owner of a farm and tannery in Harrison County. He was three times married and lived to the age of 104 years. His first wife, by birth Hannah Robinson, left three sons who lived to become the heads of families. Great-grand- father Hull enlisted in the Colonial army in the Revolutionary war and never returned, dying in battle, or perhaps perishing by exposure or of ill treatment as a prisoner. Grandparents Thomas and Rebecca (Hale) Thomas, the former
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a native of Delaware and the latter of Connect- ient, raised a large family and were well beyond middle life when they died. Great-grandfather Thomas was a Scotch emigrant.
O. H. Hull, the subject of this sketch, was educated in a private school in his native county. and helped in his father's tannery until the age of sixteen. In his seventeenth year he was en- rolled in the militia of the proposed new State of West Virginia, and in 1862 enlisted in the Twelfth Regiment West Virginia Volunteer In- fantry, and was engaged in twenty-three pitched battles from Piedmont to Appomattox. After his discharge he went to farming in Iowa, and in 1867 bought 140 acres in Mahaska County, which he retained until 1870. He then learned the harness-making business in Oskaloosa, and carried on a shop one year in Granville, Iowa, In 1872 he moved to Kansas, and followed the same business in Belleville, Republic County, and afterward in Smith Center, Smith County, where he bought a farm of 160 acres. In 1879 he became a member of the Grand Army of the Republic in Kansas. After a residence of eleven years in that State he sold his farm and harness- shop and came to California in 1883, settling in this city, where he engaged in the school-furnish- ing business. He has had the agency of the National School Furnishing Company from the first, to which have been added the goods of other manufacturers in that and other lines. In 1885 he formed a partnership with W. B. Hardacre and J. A. Stewart, under the style of Hull, Hardacre & Co., which, by the withdrawal of Mr. Hardacre in 1888, became Hull & Stewart, and in 1889 was changed to the " Hull & Stew- art Company," located since April 1, 1889, at No. 306 Main street. They handle not only school supplies of all sorts, but also sewing- machines-the New Crown and Wheeler & Wil- son, No. 9, as well as Crown pianos and organs.
Mr. O. H. Hull was married in 1866, at her home near Granville, Iowa, to Miss Nancy Maria Baldwin, born in Ohio, August 13, 1846, a daughter of Thompson and Sophronia (Phelps) Baldwin, who settled in Mahaska Connty, Iowa,
about 1847. Her father died aged abont sixty- three; her mother, born about 1820, is still living on the old homestead. Mrs. Hull's grandfather, Hiram Baldwin, was born and brought up in Grayson County, Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. Hull have five children-two born in Iowa, two in Kansas and one in California, as follows :- Herschel Varian, born October 14, 1868; Mer- rill Ord, October 26, 1871; Veda Belle, July 3, 1874; Sophronia Ariel, July 14, 1881; Leland Mentor, October 5, 1885. Herschel V. lost his sight by an accident when only eight years old, and was placed in the Wyandotte Institution for the Blind, and, coming with the family to this State in 1853, was placed in the institution in Berkeley, from which he was graduated in the summer of 1887, and is a broom-manufacturer on his own account in this city. Merrill O. is attending a business college in this city.
Mr. Hull is a member of Morning Star Lodge, No. 68, F. & A. M., and of Rawlins Post, No. 23, G. A. R.
HARLES BAMERT, a merchant of Clements, Elliott Township, San Joaquin County, was born April 2, 1830, in Ger- many, his parents being John and Mary (Hu- come) Bamert, both natives of Germany. The father died in New York State in 1855, and the mother in 1857; the father was a farmer by occupation. Charles, our subject, left Germany for New York in 1835; he settled in Ontario County, where he remained until 1852, when he started for California via the Isthmus, taking the steamer Northern Light to the Isthmus, and the Northern Light to San Francisco, where he arrived after a weary voyage of thirty-two days. He went directly to the mines at Placer County, where he stayed two years; then went to Iowa Hill, Placer County, where he remained nine months; thence to Calaveras County, where he mined two years. Coming to Knight's Ferry, he remained for one year, then went back to the Amador County mines, where he mined two
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more years. He at last settled on the Mokel- umne river, six miles from where he, with oth- ers, formed the corporation known as the Farm- ers' Trade Union. He opened this business in the spring of 1883. They carry from $15,000 to $16,000 worth of stock. He owns 900 acres of fine land, half of which is situated in San Joaquin County, and the other in Amador County. Mr. Bamert is a member of the order of Patrons of Husbandry.
Mr. Bamert was married to Miss Leah Shel- bourn, who was born in Amador County in 1845. They have two sons and one daughter, as follows: Frank C., born August 10, 1876; Lucy, September, 1879, and Edward, April, 1883.
OSEPH PRATT, a farmer of O'Neil Town- ship, San Joaquin County, was born in Portland, Maine. When ten years of age he went to Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, and in 1849 he came to California by way of Cape Horn, on the ship Edward Everett, and landed in San Francisco after a six months' voyage. He went to Sacramento, where he engaged in the hay and grain business. After that he went in partnership with Mr. Fogg, and they kept a store on Bear river, Placer County. He next engaged in building houses in Sacramento, for the purpose of renting. Finally he bought a farm situated about six miles east of Stockton, where he has resided ever since, principally en- gaged in raising wheat. He has a pleasant, quiet home, partly hidden from view by shade trees. His sister, Mrs. C. S. Richardson, re- sides at his home.
HOMAS CLEMENTS, the founder of the pretty little village of Clements, was born at Glenview farın, County Armagh, Ireland, December 18, 1837, the son of John and Mary (Lester) Clements, both natives of Ireland. The
former was born in 1792, and the latter in 1795. They both died in the country of their birth, which they never left. Thomas Clements came to California in 1857, locating in Ione, Aınador Connty, where he was engaged in farming until 1872, when he came to the place where lie now resides, about a half-mile from Clements and three miles from Lockeford. He purchased tlie place of Judge Terry in 1871, and moved upon it in 1872. He has been one of the most suc- cessfnl farmers in this country. He is at present owner of 1,500 acres of land in this county, 600 in Amador County, and lias a half interest in 7,500 acres in Tulare County. He is en- gaged principally in raising grain and stock.
He was married in San Francisco in April, 1868, to Miss Jennie Sprott, who was born in Ireland, Down County, September 21, 1841. They have four children, as follows: Minnie J., born July 12, 1872; Maggie, November 6, 1876; John H., October 23, 1878, and George R., April 28, 1880.
R. J. MESEROLL, dentist of Stockton, is a native of Illinois, but was reared in Cal- ifornia, having come to this State in 1852. He acquired a good practical education, and is a graduate of Chamberlain Commercial College, San Francisco. He commenced the study of dentistry May 1, 1873, with Dr. J. N. Meyers, now deceased, and having acquired the pro- fession, has ever since practiced it (in Stockton) with success. He was for two and one-half years in partnership with Dr. Burton, but with the exception of that time has practiced alone. He is a member of Charity Lodge, I. O. O. F.
Dr. Meseroll purchased twenty acres of land a short distance from Stockton in 1887 and commenced its improvement as an orchard the same year. The place is on the south side of the Linden road, along which and on one of the other sides, it is bordered with Monterey cy- press trees. The house and other building im- provements back well from the road, and about
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them are handsome shade and ornamental trees, notably the Pulvonia trees. He is adding to his orchard at this writing (1890), but has already seven acres devoted to that purpose, the trees being as follows, in the quantities men- tioned: 100 apricots, 17 peaches, plums, 30 French prunes, 20 de Agein prunes, 10 Victoria nectarines, 10 Bidwell nectarines, 16 Bartlett pears, 10 apples, 7 cherries, 2 quince, 2 Spanish chestnut, 3 Smyrna figs, 632 almonds, rasp- berries, blackberries, etc. He has also three acres of vines in good growth, of the Black Prince variety, which will bear in 1890. Among the shade and ornamental trees, besides those already referred to, may be mentioned the Mon- terey pine and the Blue Gum tree. All the fruits mentioned have done very well indeed, but Dr. Meseroll regards the locality as best adapted to apricots, grapes and Bartlett pears. Almonds and apricots bore well in 1889, their second year, and quite a few peaches bore a fair quantity of fruit in 1889; some nectarines were also picked. The place is a handsome one, and when fully improved will be a model ranch in its appointments.
RANK ELLIS LANE, a grain merchant of Stockton, was born in this city, November 5, 1860, a son of Rufus Bradbury and Jane H. Lane; was educated in the Stockton schools until 1877, and graduated at the business college in 1878. He learned the inilling busi- ness in his father's mills from 1878 to 1882, and afterward learned the new process in the Crown Mills of this city. Is now engaged in the grain business, on his own account, and as buyer for G. W. McNear of San Francisco.
LEX. HORN, a farmer of Castoria Town- ship, was born in New York city, August 23, 1814. Being left an orphan at the age of one year, he was raised by an nncle. At
the age of thirteen he was bound out as an ap- prentice to a cabinet-maker, serving seven years. At the end of that time, in 1834, he was mar- ried to Miss Mary Ann Simmons. In 1837 he was employed at the Brooklyn Navy Yards. In the fall of that year, with his wife and child, he sailed for Mobile, Alabama, on a merchant ves- sel. In January, 1838, he was employed in the Pensacola Navy Yards, Florida. In the sumn- mer of 1838 he came to New Orleans, where he remained a short time. From there he em- barked for Cincinnati, Ohio, settling in Coving- ton, Kentucky. While there he took an active part in the campaign of 1840, for General Har- rison, of log-cabin renown. He had partici- pated in the previous Presidential campaign of 1836, in New York city. The spirit of adven- ture still urging him west, he moved to St. Lonis, Missouri, preparatory to getting on the frontier. In the fall of 1841 he took passage up the Missouri river for Booneville, on his way to Springfield, Missouri, at that time the most remote frontier town of the State. There he worked at his trade until the fall of 1849, when he started for Washington city, District of Co- lumbia, in company with the late Governor Phelps, of Missouri, at that time a member of Congress. Held a position in the Capitol during that long session when California was admitted as a State. Was appointed Receiving Clerk of the Postoffice Department by Postmaster-Gen- eral Collamer in 1850, served until the end of the fiscal year 1853, when he was removed by the Pierce administration. Returning, he went to work at his trade again. During the long, cold winter of 1855-'56 he was caught in a blizzard and nearly frozen, and became very much disgusted with the climate. Not being satisfied with his previous adventures, he con- cluded to start across the plains to California. He sold his farm at a sacrifice and bought fifty- six head of cattle, and left the settlements in April of 1856. They were four and a half nonths on the way. Lost half of the stock, and two young men in the train were killed by the Indians or the Mormons. He was with the
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first emigrants to cross the Sierra Mountains on the Big Tree road. On arriving here he settled on the ranch of 320 acres, situated about eight iniles from Stockton, where he has resided ever since. He visited New York in 1878, with his wife and youngest daughter, after an absence of forty-one years.
Alex. Horn and wife celebrated their golden wedding at the close of 1884. Mrs. Horn died January 3, 1889. Their children and grand- children number 25; they were all present at the celebration, besides inany of their friends. His children are as follows: Henry, Mary, Ma- tilda, John and Minnie.
HARLES H. CORSON, a native of Som- erset County, Maine, was born March 1, 1853, son of Lysander and Snsan C. (Mor- rison) Corson, both natives of that State; Mrs. Corson died in 1881, Mr. Corson is still resid- ing there. There were nine children in the fam- ily, seven of whom are now living, four in California.
Charles resided in Somerset County until he was eighteen years of age, during which time he attended the public schools of that vi- cinity and afterward graduated from the business college at Angnsta, Maine. He then went to Lawrence, Massachusetts, where he worked six months in the cotton factory, then devoted nearly three years to the furniture business as a salesman. In 1876 he gave up his position and started for California, arriving in Stockton June 3. Three months later he was engaged at G. W. Melone's auction house, where he re- mained fourteen months. He then took a posi- tion as teacher in Atkinson & Clark's Business College, Stockton, where he remained five years. In March, 1882, he engaged with Sperry & Co. in their flouring-mill as bookkeeper; just eight days before he was to have commenced, the mill was destroyed by fire. The proprietors then rented the mill in Lodi and sent Mr. Corson up there. He kept books for them four months,
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